1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to the automated capture of diagnostic data in computer systems, and more particularly to the automated capture of diagnostic data in co-operating multi-image computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automatic capture of diagnostic data is well known in computer systems. It is often used in complex and/or long running applications to allow rapid resolution of problems without the need to reproduce failures in live or backup systems. A standard practice is to provide First Failure Data Capture (FFDC) in the form of dumps, logs and trace files, the data capture being triggered when a problem is detected.
A problem with this practice is that there is a compromise between the need to obtain sufficient diagnostic information for the problem to be resolved and the cost of producing that diagnostic information. The cost of producing the diagnostic information can include (a) the performance overhead to the application of continuously logging and tracing, (b) the time taken to produce dumps on a failure (which may delay restart of the application), and (c) the amount of disk space required to store the diagnostic information output.
Okano (PCT Pub. No. WO2012/026035) discloses a fault processing system that can reproduce a fault that occurs in the information processing device. There is a need in the art for a method and/or system that improves the quality and quantity of diagnostics information produced for failures in multi-image systems.